New moves to ensure council money is safe

New measures are being taken to protect public money in the wake of the Icelandic banks fiasco.

The changes brought in by Bracknell Forest Council would ban investment in any non-UK financial institution and many of the smaller UK building societies.

The amount of public money allowed to be invested in UK banks could be dropped by £2 million to a maximum of £5 million per single investment.

The moves, approved by members of Bracknell Forest Council executive on Tuesday, will have to be backed by the full council before they are adopted.

Other steps to be taken to help secure council investments include upping Treasury meetings from quarterly to monthly and reviewing and updating the Treasury strategy with the new budget next April.

The actions come after it emerged the council, along with many others in the UK, invested £5million in two Icelandic banks earlier this year which had their assets frozen in October.

Chris Herbert, borough treasurer, said: “We can assume we will get some of the money back but the difficulty there is time, and there’s no news.

Councillor Alan Ward, executive member for finance, resources and assets, said: “I think that what we need to be very careful about is to realise that overall this is a success story rather than a disaster story.”

To read the full story make sure you pick up a copy of this week's Bracknell Forest Standard